Chinstrap penguins, a species known for its unique behaviors, have astonished researchers with their mastery of microsleeps. A recent study reveals that breeding chinstrap penguins take more than 10,000 naps a day, each lasting an average of four seconds. This sleep strategy enables the penguins to accumulate around 11 hours of sleep daily, challenging traditional notions that sleep fragmentation is detrimental to sleep quality.
The study, published in Science, involved the observation of 14 penguins nesting on King George Island, Antarctica. Over a 10-day period, researchers found that the penguins never engaged in prolonged sleep, and the longest nap recorded was 34 seconds.
To gather data on brain activity, electrodes were implanted inside the penguins’ skulls, allowing scientists to monitor when the birds entered slow-wave sleep. This form of sleep is dominant in birds and also occurs in humans.
The study revealed that penguins engaged in over 600 short bouts of slow-wave sleep per hour. Interestingly, these bouts became even shorter and more frequent when the birds were caring for eggs, indicating heightened alertness during incubation.
“This is what was most striking and interesting—the fact that they can deal with sleeping in a fragmented way continuously, day and night,” said Paul-Antoine Libourel, co-author and a sleep ecophysiologist at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in Bron, France.
The remarkable ability of chinstrap penguins to thrive on short naps challenges conventional sleep patterns and provides insights into the adaptations of these birds to their unique environmental and reproductive challenges.
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